1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector, and in particular to an improved electrical connector comprising a female connector member and a male connector member to be fitted into the female connector member to establish electrical connection between electrical terminals accommodated in each connector member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the known various types of electrical connectors, there is an electrical connector known as a joint connector. The joint connector is used when a main wire connected to a connector member of the connector is electrically connected to other wires connected to the connecting member at the connector to form a branch circuit. One of the known joint connectors is disclosed for example in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 61-277180, which is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The known joint connector 1 comprises a connecting housing 3 and a male connector member 5 to be fitted into the connecting housing 3. The connecting housing 3 has a base portion 3a and a cylindrical hood portion 3b extending from the base portion 3a so as to define a hollow space 3c and a front opening 3d. In the base portion 3a of the connecting housing 3, there are embedded a plurality of flat male terminals 7 in such a manner that they extend into the hollow space 3c. These male terminals 7 are divided into some joint terminals 7a in which some male terminals are joined together at base parts thereof so as to establish electrical connection among them. Namely, as shown in FIG. 1, there are some joint terminals 7a in the connecting housing 3, each of which has two or three male terminals, respectively.
The male connector member 5 includes a plurality of female terminals (not shown) to which a plurality of wires 9 are connected, respectively. The female terminals are arranged so as to receive the male terminals 7 of the connecting housing 3 therein when the male connector member 5 is inserted into the hollow space 3c from the front opening 3d and then fitted to the connecting housing 3. When the connector member 5 is properly fitted to the connecting housing 3, some of the female terminals attached to the wires 9 will be electrically connected with each other through the joint terminal having the male terminals connected to the female terminals. This means that one of these wires 9, which is a main wire, can be branched to the remaining wires 9 at the joint connector 1 by means of the joint terminal 7a. In this case, the number of the wires to be branched at the joint connector 1 depends on the number of the male terminals 7 which constitute the joint terminal. Namely, as shown in FIG. 1, if the joint terminal has three male terminals, two wires can be branched from the main wire at the joint connector 1.
The joint connector 1 can provide a reliable branch circuit. However, as stated above, the number of the branch wires produced by this type of joint connector depends on the number of the male terminals of the joint terminal which has already embedded in the base portion of the connecting housing 3. Therefore, the degree of freedom for connecting wires for a branch circuit is restricted by the number and arrangement of the terminals of the joint terminal which has already been embedded in the base portion 3a. In order to overcome the problem, it may be possible to prepare different connecting housings each having different combinations of joint terminals. However, this will result in increase the manufacturing cost thereof.
In the meantime, there is another type of connector which is known as an intermediate connector. The intermediate connector is used for connecting one plurality of wires to another plurality of wires. Such an intermediate connector comprises a female connector member including a plurality of terminals connected to wires and a male connector member including a plurality of terminals connected to wires. The male connector member is constituted so as to be fittable into the female connector member, and to establish electrical connection between the wires when the terminals of each connector member are connected together. In such an intermediate connector, if some of the wires attached to the terminals of one connector member should be connected with each other in order to constitute a branch circuit, it is necessary to additionally prepare such a joint connector as described above and then connect these wires with wires of the connector member of the joint connector. This means that the known intermediate connector could not be used as a joint connector for constituting a branch circuit.